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Extremely rare John Thornton chart of Hispaniola and the Windward Passage prepared in London for the inaugural issue of The English Pilot. The Fourth Book (John Thornton & William Fisher, 1689). This first English sea atlas devoted to American waters was published in the very year William III committed England to the War of the Grand Alliance against France, a conflict that spilled quickly into the Caribbean and made dependable sailing directions a strategic necessity.
Geographic Content and Navigational Purpose
Thornton’s plate takes the mariner from the eastern tip of Cuba across the passage to Hispaniola, with Jamaica and the Turks & Caicos ranged to south and north. A tight web of rhumb lines and profuse soundings through the shoals of the Abrahilio Bank guide vessels through shoals such as and the reefs off Cabo Engaño. Coastal toponyms focus on landfalls valued by English pilots: “Port Royal” sits prominently at the entrance to Jamaica’s harbour, still the epicentre of buccaneering and convoy assembly more than thirty years after Cromwell’s forces had seized the island in 1655, while “I. Turtudos” (Tortuga) hides around "C. Nicholao" (Cap Saint-Nicolas) haven lying athwart every course through the Passage.
Drawn at a time when English commercial and naval interests were rapidly expanding in the Caribbean, the chart captures with considerable precision the primary navigational hazards and coastal features essential to late 17th-century mariners.
The island of Hispaniola is rendered with a bold outline and detailed coastal nomenclature, including numerous harbors, capes, rivers, and settlements, reflecting both Spanish and French colonial presence. Surrounding waters are intricately marked with shoals, banks, and reefs, while radiating rhumb lines and compass roses aid in plotting courses through the frequently treacherous channels. The Windward Passage itself, the narrow and strategic sea lane between Cuba and Hispaniola, is clearly delineated, emphasizing its importance as a primary route for vessels moving between Jamaica, the Atlantic, and the Spanish Main.
Following England’s seizure of Jamaica in 1655 and the rise of English privateering and commerce in the region, accurate charts of the Windward Passage were vital for both military expeditions and merchant voyages. Thornton’s depiction reflects the geopolitical realities of the period, where control of strategic sea lanes directly influenced colonial power, trade dominance, and naval supremacy in the Caribbean.
Historical setting
By 1689 England’s West-Indian trade was booming, and Port Royal corsairs were already targeting French shipping as open war loomed. Centering Hispaniola, a territory then split between rival French and Spanish spheres, Thornton supplied English captains with the first home-produced chart to concentrate exclusively on this corridor. Its appearance in the Pilot, the same year that William III entered the wider European struggle, marks the beginning of English printed hydrography serving imperial policy in the Caribbean.
Rarity and state
Verner traced only a few complete examples of the 1689 Fourth Book, and many have since been broken for their charts; early pulls such as the present sheet, without the later Mount & Page or Grierson imprints, are seldom encountered on the market.
Issued at the moment when English commerce, privateering and war converged in the Windward Passage, this rare first-edition chart is both a working pilot’s tool and a tangible record of the burgeoning maritime power that would soon dominate the Caribbean.
John Thornton was a respected and prominent chartmaker in London in the latter part of the seventeenth century. He was one of the final members of the Thames School of chartmakers and served as the hydrographer to the Hudson's Bay Company and the East India Company. He produced a large variety of printed charts, maps, and atlases in his career, but he was also a renowned manuscript chart maker. Born in London in 1641, he was apprenticed in the Drapers Company to a chartmaker, John Burston. After being made free of the company (1665), he was part of the combine that took over John Seller’ English Pilot in 1677. Thornton was trusted by the naval and navigational establishment of the day; one of his clients was Samuel Pepys, naval administrator and diarist. Thornton died in 1708, leaving his stock to his son, Samuel, who carried on the business.
Samuel, born in ca. 1665, also had apprenticed in the Drapers Company and was made free a year after his father’s death. He continued the business until 1715, when he died. His stock then passed to Richard Mount and Thomas Page.
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